Bicentenary Way
Created in 2024 as part of our 200th year celebrations, Bicentenary Way tells the story of our origins, our innovations and the people behind them since 1824.
The installation, located in Brunswick Park and opposite the Queen’s Arch, recognises key figures and groups who have made an inspirational contribution to the life of the University and to society more generally. Alongside recognisable historical figures, it also features those who, though perhaps lesser known, embody our values and community spirit, and have shown what it means to make a difference.
As our third century unfolds, we’ll be adding to Bicentenary Way, ensuring our greatest asset – our people – continue to be celebrated and are forever connected with our campus and city.
City of Manchester and its people
Our city, our family, our home.
This diverse and industrious city is part of our DNA. From the seeds of our origins being sewn at the Manchester Mechanics' Institute in 1824, this incredible city (and the people who call it home) has raised and supported our University, cementing it firmly in its family. We are forever proudly Mancunian.
Naa Acquah
Originally from London, Naa Acquah graduated from The University of Manchester with a BA Hons in Religion and Theology in 2014 and undertook a master’s in International Relations.
She became the first Black General Secretary of The University of Manchester Students’ Union in 2015, aiming to increase access and ability to excel, and focusing on finances, safety and student representation. This followed roles as President of the Manchester Model United Nations Society and Head of News at Fuse FM radio station.
Frank Worrell
Sir Frank Worrell was a hugely talented all-round cricketer who graduated from the University's BA Admin course in 1959. A year later he became captain of the West Indies cricket team – the first Black man to captain the side for an entire series.
After his retirement from cricket, he became a Jamaican senator. The winners of West Indies versus Australia test matches are awarded the Frank Worrell Trophy in his honour.
Alison Uttley
Alison Uttley was a Manchester Physics graduate who would go on to write more than 100 books. She is best known for her children's books and one of her most popular works, A Traveller in Time, sees a young girl transported back to the time of the imprisoned Mary, Queen of Scots. The book later became a BBC television drama adaptation.
In 1970, the University awarded Uttley an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters for her literary work and, in 2021, a hall of residence was named ‘Uttley House’ in her honour.
Meera Syal
Meera Syal CBE studied English and Drama at the University and went on to receive an MBE and CBE for her services to drama and literature.
She was awarded a BAFTA Fellowship – the institution's highest accolade – in 2023. Through her acting and writing, Syal explores what it means to be a British Indian woman, helping the push towards greater diversity and representation in TV.
Melvin Calvin
Melvin Calvin used radioisotopes to study the complex pathways by which green plants use sunlight to convert carbon dioxide into carbohydrates. His elucidation of the mechanisms of photosynthesis won him the 1961 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
The son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, Calvin grew up and studied in Detroit, US and worked with Michael Polanyi at Manchester from 1935 to 1937 – where he became interested in photochemistry, the subject of his life’s work. Contacts here led him to the University of California, Berkeley, where he had an outstanding career.
Frederick James Marquis
The 1st Earl of Woolton, Lord Frederick James Marquis was educated at Manchester before becoming a Research Fellow in 1910.
His contribution to British industry during World War I gained him a knighthood, before he was appointed Minister of Food in 1940 and established the rationing system. He went on to serve as Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1946 to 1955.
Mildred Pope
Mildred Pope came to Manchester in 1934 following a period at Oxford, during which she was the first woman at the university to be appointed Reader.
At Manchester she served as Professor of French Language and Romance Philosophy. She would later become the first woman to receive an honorary doctorate from a French university, and taught the likes of novelist Dorothy Sayers and literary scholar Eugène Vinaver.
George Edward Davis
Credited with the establishment of chemical engineering as a discipline, George Edward Davis gave a series of 12 lectures at Manchester Technical School – which would become the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) – that lay the foundations for his Handbook of Chemical Engineering in 1901.
The IChemE Davis Medal, named in his honour, is awarded to an eminent individual who has rendered exceptional service to chemical engineering.
Steve Furber
A Manchester native, Steve Furber CBE was principal designer of both the BBC Micro and the ARM 32-bit reduced instruction set computer (RISC) microprocessor.
Joining the University in 1990, his project SpiNNaker – a supercomputer designed to function like a human mind – has the potential to answer the global grand challenge of how to reverse engineer the human brain.
Balfour Stewart
A Professor of Physics at Owens College until his death, Balfour Stewart was Manchester’s first Langworthy Professor.
His breakthroughs in the field of radiant heat extended Pierre Prévost's earlier Law of Exchanges, and Stewart was first to identify an electrified atmospheric layer capable of distorting Earth’s magnetic field. A member of the Royal Society, he received its Rumford Medal in 1868 for his outstandingly important discoveries in the field of thermal or optical properties.
Norman Foster
Norman Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank, who graduated in Architecture and City Planning from Manchester in 1961, is one of the most celebrated British architects of all time.
He would become Founder and Executive Chairman of Foster and Partners – a global studio for architecture, urbanism and design – and has designed some of the world’s most iconic structures, including the Millennium Bridge, the ‘Gherkin’ and the Great Court of the British Museum in London.
Andre Geim
Regius Professor and Royal Society Research Professor at The University of Manchester, Professor Sir Andre Geim shared the 2010 Nobel Prize in Physics with Kostya Novoselov for their groundbreaking work in isolating and demonstrating the remarkable properties of graphene.
He also shared the 2000 Ig Nobel Prize in Physics for his tongue-in-cheek work on levitating frogs – becoming the only recipient of both Nobel and IgNobel Prizes.
W G Sebald
German writer and novelist Winfried Georg (W G) Sebald was a lector at Manchester from 1966 to 1969.
His works largely deal with themes of memory and identity, the trauma of World War II and its effect on the German people. His notable works include Austerlitz, Vertigo, The Emigrants and The Rings of Saturn.
William Boyd Dawkins
Noted for his research on fossils and the antiquity of man, geologist and archaeologist Sir William Boyd Dawkins was appointed Curator of Manchester Museum in 1869 and the first Professor of Geology at Owens College in 1874.
He was a member of the Geological Survey of Great Britain and the Geological Society, and in 1919 was knighted for services to geology. Buxton Museum and Art Gallery has housed a replica of his elaborate study, including pictures, ornaments, furniture and scientific equipment.
Archibald Vivian Hill
Appointed Brackenbury Professor of Physiology at Manchester in 1920, Archibald Vivian Hill shared the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Otto Meyerhof.
His physical studies of heat production and muscle mechanics correlated revealingly with Meyerhof’s biochemical research. He was active in the politics of science – and especially important in resettling Jewish scientists from Nazi Germany.
Arthur Schuster
German-born British physicist Sir Arthur Schuster was a key contributor in establishing the University as a centre for the study of physics.
He studied Mathematics and Physics at Owens College, and undertook research on the spectra of hydrogen and nitrogen. In 1881 Schuster was appointed to the Beyer Chair of Applied Mathematics at the College and became Professor of Physics in 1888, enabling him to create a large, active teaching and research department here. The University’s Schuster Building is named after him.
Anna Ford
Journalist, television presenter and newsreader Anna Ford received a BA degree in Economics from the Victoria University of Manchester in 1966 and was President of the Students' Union from 1966 to 1967.
She became the University’s first female Chancellor in 2001, and Co-Chancellor along with Sir Terry Leahy when the Victoria University of Manchester merged with the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) in 2004.
Louis de Bernières
Graduating from the Victoria University of Manchester with a bachelor's degree in Philosophy in 1977, Louis de Bernières went on to write a number of best-selling novels, such as the critically-acclaimed Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.
As an avid musician, the writer’s work often references music, including the mandolin works of Vivaldi.
John Henry Reynolds
Educationist and administrator John Henry Reynolds was primarily responsible for the transformation of the Manchester Mechanics’ Institution into what would become the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST).
Reynolds was appointed Secretary to the Institute in 1879 and, placing an emphasis on more effective vocational education, led its relaunch as the Manchester Technical School in 1882. He would become Dean of the Faculty of Technology, created in the newly autonomous Victoria University of Manchester in 1904.
Bernard Lovell
Sir Bernard Lovell OBE arrived in Manchester in 1936 to study cosmic rays (pausing to work for the Telecommunications Research Establishment during World War II), but it soon became clear that bustling Oxford Road was not suited to the study.
Moving his equipment to a more remote site, Lovell established Jodrell Bank Observatory – today the home of the world’s third largest steerable dish radio telescope, the Lovell Telescope – where he led a group of astronomers in (unofficially) tracking the 1969 moon landing. The telescope had also, in 1957, famously tracked the rocket that carried Sputnik 1 into orbit, marking the dawn of the space age.
Charles Thomson Rees Wilson
Born in Glencorse, Scotland in 1869, Charles Thomson Rees Wilson moved to Manchester shortly afterwards and was educated at Owens College.
He was awarded the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physics for making the pathways of charged particles visible. Creating a cloud chamber was at the heart of his discovery – and Ernest Rutherford called the particle detector “the most original and wonderful instrument in scientific history”.
Anthony Burgess
Anthony Burgess was a writer and composer who graduated with a degree in English Literature from the University in 1940. He is best known for his hugely influential work A Clockwork Orange.
He wrote a volume of books, music and papers during his career and his relationship with the University would live on. For the 50th anniversary of A Clockwork Orange, a blue plaque was installed at the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures; in 2017 the Whitworth hosted No End to Enderby, an exhibition with two prize-winning films adapted from Burgess’s novels; and the Burgess Foundation has partnered with the University’s Centre for New Writing to invite visiting writers, known as ‘Burgess Fellows’, to the University.
Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett
Experimental physicist Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett, Baron Blackett, was appointed Langworthy Professor and Director of the Physical Laboratories at Manchester in 1937.
Known for his work on cloud chambers, cosmic rays and paleomagnetism, Blackett was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1948 – one of four Manchester physicists awarded the prize while working within our Physics Department.
Adolphus Ward
Appointed Professor of History and English Literature at Owens College in 1866, Sir Adolphus Ward was active in the foundation of Victoria University, of which he was Vice-Chancellor from 1886 to 1890 and from 1894 to 1896.
Ward also became Principal at Owens College in 1889 and the Freedom of the City of Manchester was conferred upon him in 1897. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1903 and served as its President from 1911 to 1913.
Thomas Tout
Thomas Tout, a historian of the medieval period, became Professor of History at Owens College in 1890 and would stay at Manchester until 1925.
Regarded one of the most influential historians of his generation, Tout was an active participant in University life, local civic culture and the expansion of the national and international growth of the historical discipline. A strong supporter of women’s education and suffrage, he was, for many years, a Governor of the Manchester High School for Girls. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1911 and President of the Royal Historical Society in 1926.
Leena Gade
Race engineer Leena Gade, born in Perivale, Greater London and the daughter of Indian immigrants, graduated from Manchester with an MSc in Aerospace Engineering in 1998.
Gade entered the University as one of five female students in a class of 100 and was the only one to graduate. In 2011 she became the first female race engineer to win at Le Mans; in 2012 she was named FIA World Endurance Championship 'Man of the Year' and received the C&R Racing Women in Technology Award; and in 2013 was named an ambassador for the FIA Commission for Women in Motorsport.
Our students
We celebrate you, our students!
Every one of you brings your unique identity and experiences to our campus community. While you may be here to learn from us, we never stop learning and evolving – because of you. You make a difference.
Samuel Alexander
Australian-born British philosopher Samuel Alexander was a Professor of Philosophy at Manchester from 1893–1925.
His writings connected classical and German philosophy with the biological and physical sciences of his time, and he was a keen supporter of education for and by women. He was known as a convivial character and Manchester celebrity – and the Samuel Alexander Building, formerly the Faculty of Arts Building, is named after him.
James Chadwick
Sir James Chadwick studied Physics at Manchester under Ernest Rutherford, graduating in 1911 and awarded his MSc in 1913.
He returned to work at the University after World War I. Chadwick won the 1935 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovering a previously unknown particle in the nucleus of atoms: the neutron.
Brenda Hale
Brenda Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond DBE, helped many Manchester students prepare for a career in legal services during her time as Law Lecturer, and continued to inspire in her role as the first female Law Lord in the House of Lords and, later, the first woman to lead the UK Supreme Court.
In 2023 she received the Women of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award.
John Morley
John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn, was Chancellor of the Victoria University of Manchester from 1908–1923.
Initially a journalist then newspaper editor, Morley was elected an MP for the Liberal Party in 1883 and would serve as Chief Secretary for Ireland and Secretary of State for India. A distinguished political commentator and biographer, he was known for his opposition to imperialism and the Second Boer War.
Kathleen Drew Baker
After studying Botany at Manchester, Kathleen Drew-Baker graduated in 1922 as one of two women to receive a first class honours degree.
She spent most of her academic life at Manchester and became known for her research on the edible seaweed Porphyra laciniata (nori), leading to a breakthrough for commercial cultivation. She is revered in Japan and nicknamed 'Mother of the Sea'.
Manchester Medical School
Our foundations; Medicine in Manchester.
In 1824 the Royal School of Medicine and Surgery was formed as a medical school owned by a group of doctors. 50 years later, in 1874, the Royal School of Medicine and Surgery was incorporated into Owens College and the Medical School (as it then became known) was opened in the rear quadrangle of Owens College.
Ed O'Brien
A founding member of Radiohead, Ed O'Brien studied Economics at The University of Manchester.
As the band's guitarist and co-songwriter, he went on to shape some of the most defining sounds in modern music. Radiohead have won multiple Grammy and Brit Awards, earned a number of Mercury Prize nominations and headlined Glastonbury Festival across different decades.
Catherine Isabella Dodd
A Lecturer in Education, Catherine Isabella Dodd became the first female academic at Manchester in 1892.
During this time she led initiatives to create debating, study and drama societies, access to medical degrees, and a union for female students, ultimately gaining a national reputation for her training methods. She was also a published novelist, and in her will endowed a Fellowship in Literature or Philosophy at the University.
Edwin Southern
Manchester Chemistry graduate Edwin Southern invented the Southern blot – used for DNA analysis – in 1975 before going on to win the prestigious Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research in 2005.
He is known for his pioneering work in DNA microarray technology and would become an Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Oxford.
Lucy Danger
After graduating from the University in 1992, recycling pioneer Lucy Danger went on to found EMERGE, a charity championing ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ and working to help the city of Manchester better manage waste.
Along with saving on carbon emissions and repurposing waste into new products, Lucy – as Deputy Lieutenant for Greater Manchester – would also focus on improving the region’s sustainability and community welfare.
John Douglas Cockcroft
Sir John Douglas Cockcroft CBE studied Mathematics at Manchester in 1914 and Electrical Engineering at Manchester College of Technology in 1919. He gained an MSc in Electrical Engineering in 1921/22.
He shared with Ernest Walton the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1951 for splitting the atomic nucleus and was instrumental in the development of nuclear power.
Mohammed Wakkas Khan
Mohammed Wakkas Khan MBE graduated from Manchester with a BDS in 2004 and an MSc in 2022 and has founded and championed charitable causes both locally and nationally.
In 2009 he was appointed the youngest ever member of the General Dental Council; in 2015 he was appointed the first Muslim trustee of Oxfam GB; and for ten years he chaired The Prince's Trust Mosaic North West, a charitable mentoring initiative founded by King Charles III to empower disenfranchised young people.
Walter Norman Haworth
Graduating in 1906 with a first-class honours degree in Chemistry, Sir Walter Haworth went on to become highly influential in his field, best known for his groundbreaking work on ascorbic acid, or vitamin C.
His pioneering synthesis of the vitamin, in collaboration with Swiss chemist Paul Karrer, opened it up to large scale production and won the pair a Nobel Prize in 1937. His work is known among chemists as the Haworth projection – translating three-dimensional sugar structures into convenient two-dimensional graphical form.
Niels Bohr
After receiving an invitation from Ernest Rutherford, Niels Bohr came to the Victoria University of Manchester in 1911.
His time with Rutherford inspired an adaptation of his nuclear structure to create the Bohr model of the atom. Bohr argued that electrons move in defined orbits around an atom’s nucleus and that an element’s chemical properties depend on the higher energy electrons in its outer orbits. He won the Nobel Prize for his work in 1922 and founded the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen.
Robert Bolt
Graduating from the University in 1949 with an Honours degree in History, Robert Bolt CBE went on to be an influential screenwriter, translating complex historical narratives into cinematic masterpieces.
His films include Lawrence of Arabia and the Academy Award-winning Doctor Zhivago. In honour of his legacy and work in social advocacy, such as protests against nuclear proliferation, the University named its English Literature and Creative Writing award for undergraduates the Robert Bolt Prize.
John Richard Hicks
Professor of Political Economy at Manchester from 1938 to 1946 – where he wrote his most important works on welfare economics – Sir John Richard Hicks shared the 1972 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences with Kenneth J Arrow for general equilibrium theory and welfare economics.
He created widely used conceptual tools for the analysis of price mechanisms, technical change and demand for money.
James Lovelock
James Lovelock CBE was an independent scientist who graduated with a degree in Chemistry from the University in 1941 and was best known for proposing the Gaia hypothesis in the 1970s.
Working with Archer Martin, the pair would realise the true potential of chromatography; and Lovelock would also invent the electron capture detector (ECD). This device, and the work Lovelock undertook, led to the identification of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and their role in the depletion of the ozone layer.
Peter Maxwell Davies
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies CBE is considered one of the great composers of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Having taught himself A-level music, he won places at both the University and the Royal Manchester College of Music. In 1986 Davies was knighted; in 2004 he was appointed Master of the Queen's Music; and in 2009 he returned to campus as patron of The University of Manchester Music Society. He was a strong campaigner for equal and gay rights throughout his life.
Marian Millar
In 1894, Marian Millar was the first woman to graduate with a degree in Music in England.
She went on to work at the Manchester High School for Girls as a Professor of Pianoforte and Harmony, while also contributing articles, translations and lyrics to musical publications.
Bertram Vivian Bowden
After studying under Ernest Rutherford in the early 1930s, Bertram Bowden, Baron Bowden of Chesterfield, went on to become Principal of the Manchester College of Science and Technology post-World War II.
He tapped into the post-war expansion of higher education and was instrumental in transforming the College into the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST). He was given life peerage in 1964 and became Harold Wilson’s Minister for Education and Science.
Simon Armitage
Graduating from his master’s degree at Manchester in 1989, Simon Armitage CBE went on to become one of the UK’s most revered poets, with collections reflecting on his home town in West Yorkshire to translations of classics such as the Odyssey.
Appointed Poet Laureate in 2019, Armitage has since written poems for the Royal Astronomical Society, the Guardian, the BBC centenary and the coronation of King Charles III. He would also work as a Professor of Poetry at the University of Leeds.
Anil Ruia
Coming from a family of cotton and tea traders, Anil Ruia OBE changed tack upon leaving school and studied Law.
Switching direction again following graduation, he trained as a chartered accountant and joined the family tea business. In 2010 he became the first Asian person to chair the University’s Board of Governors – a post he held continuously until 2016.
Jean McFarlane
Jean McFarlane, Baroness McFarlane of Llandaff, worked as a nurse, midwife and health visitor before becoming England’s first university Chair of Nursing at Manchester, where she established the UK’s first nursing degree.
She later served on the Royal Commission on the NHS, and was created a life peer in the House of Lords in 1979. The University’s home of Nursing and Midwifery is named in her honour.
Frances O'Grady
Graduating with a BA Honours in Politics and Modern History from Manchester, Frances O’Grady, Baroness O'Grady of Upper Holloway, worked for the Transport and General Workers’ Union, campaigning for a minimum wage before climbing the ranks in the Trades Union Congress (TUC).
She was appointed General Secretary in 2013 as the first woman to hold the position and continued until 2022 before receiving life peerage in the House of Lords, sitting for the Labour Party and becoming Baroness O'Grady of Upper Holloway.
Margaret Beckett
University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) graduate Dame Margaret Beckett GBE became the MP for Derby South in 1983. She went on to be Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and Shadow Leader of the House of Commons in 1992.
Under Tony Blair’s leadership she was Shadow Secretary of State for Health, before taking on other senior roles including Foreign Secretary. She would hold the record for the female MP with the longest overall service.
John Charles Polanyi
Born in Berlin, John Charles Polanyi emigrated to the UK in 1933. Studying Chemistry, he received his undergraduate degree from Manchester in 1949 and his PhD in 1952.
He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in chemical kinetics.
William Henry
Manchester-born William Henry was a renowned chemist, best known for his work on gases and what is now known as Henry’s Law – a law stating that the amount of dissolved gas in a liquid is directly proportional to its partial pressure above the liquid.
He also co-founded the Manchester Mechanics’ Institute.
Richard Copley Christie
Lawyer, philanthropist and Professor of Political Economy, Richard Copley Christie worked at Owens College between 1855 and 1866.
Left a significant sum of money in the will of Sir Joseph Whitworth, Christie went on to support the College with funds for the building of Whitworth Hall. He also donated money for a ‘cancer pavilion’ in 1892, later to become the Christie Hospital. Christie was an enthusiastic book collector and bequeathed his 15,000-strong collection to Owens College – now housed at the John Rylands Research Institute and Library.
Kwame Asamoah Kwarteng
Kwame Kwarteng came to the University via a fully funded master’s scholarship from the Global Development Institute. He went on to work with the University as General Secretary of the Students’ Union, sparking a wave of diversity and inclusion and seeing the historic election of an all-international student executive team.
He drove positive transformation including negotiating the largest ever rent reduction, expanding hardship funds to support international students and establishing a master’s scholarship for ten students from Zimbabwe and Malawi annually.
Konstantin Novoselov
Russian-British physicist Sir Konstantin (Kostya) Novoselov formed one half of the research duo that first isolated wonder material graphene.
He has been included in the list of the most highly cited researchers, with hundreds of peer-reviewed papers to his name. His work on graphene with Sir Andre Geim earned them the Nobel Prize in 2010 and he was instrumental in the development of the National Graphene Institute, as its first Director. He would also become Langworthy Professor in the School of Physics and Astronomy.
Catherine Chisholm
Catherine Chisholm CBE was the first female medical graduate of the University, then Owens College Medical School.
She was instrumental in founding the Manchester Babies Hospital in 1914, providing specialist care to infants and boasting an all-female staff. An influential figure in clinical neonatology, she enjoyed many achievements in children’s health – including holding a lectureship at the University for more than 20 years – while also being a key advocate in better understanding and supporting women’s health.
Alexander Todd
Appointed Professor of Organic Chemistry at Manchester in 1938, Alexander Todd analysed biologically important molecules, including plant pigments and several vitamins.
His work on ‘chemically interesting molecules’ won him the 1957 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and proved crucial for Watson and Crick’s 1953 model of DNA.
Benedict Cumberbatch
Benedict Cumberbatch CBE was a Drama graduate at the University and, following further study in classical acting, would progress into theatre and television. After venturing into film, Cumberbatch would go on to portray another Manchester hero, Alan Turing, in The Imitation Game (2014).
An established Hollywood star, he has achieved various accolades including BAFTA, Primetime Emmy and Laurence Olivier Awards.
John Charnley
After graduating from the Victoria University of Manchester in 1935, Sir John Charnley CBE became an influential orthopaedic surgeon.
He is recognised as the founder of the modern hip replacement and was instrumental in reducing the infection rate during surgery. He was awarded the Lister Medal for his contributions in 1975, before being knighted two years later.
Osborne Reynolds
After studying Mathematics at Cambridge, Osborne Reynolds was appointed a Professor of Engineering at Owens College at just 26 years old.
He taught at Manchester for 37 years and helped create the first Whitworth Engineering Laboratory. His investigations into lubrication, turbines, pumps, estuaries and water waves led to the Reynolds number, a calculation still used today to predict the velocity at which the smooth flow of liquid in a tube becomes turbulent.
Amani Abou-Zeid
Dr Amani Abou-Zeid graduated from the University’s Global Development Institute with a PhD in Socio-economic Development in 2001 and would become Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy for the African Union.
Her links with Manchester would continue – becoming Chair of the Global Development Institute’s International Advisory Board for the African Cities Research Centre. Dr Abou-Zeid's career has seen many globally recognised achievements for Africa’s integration and for the wellbeing of its people, and she has received multiple high-profile awards. These include being repeatedly named one of Africa’s Most Influential Women, decorated by several countries and conferred doctorate honoris causa by the University in 2022.
Our alumni
We are incredibly proud of every one of our graduates and know that you go on to make a difference in society – whether here in Manchester or around the world.
You are all part of our global Manchester community, and we celebrate you! Not just for your achievements here in your studies, but in your lifelong learning and future accomplishments.
Rona Robinson
Rona Robinson became the first woman in the UK to earn a first-class degree in Chemistry, graduating from Manchester in 1905 and receiving the LeBlanc medal for distinction in organic chemistry. She also gained a Mercer scholarship for the best final-year student entering research and would stay on at the University to complete her MSc.
Robinson would later take up a position with the Women's Social and Political Union led by Emmeline Pankhurst and would be presented with a Hunger Strike Medal from the organisation. She went on to become one of the first female industrial chemists, enjoying a long career in the dye industry.
Arthur Lewis
Britain’s first Black professor, Sir William Arthur Lewis was the Stanley Jevons Professor of Political Economy at the Victoria University of Manchester, in the Faculty of Economic and Social Studies, between 1948 and 1957.
During this time, he developed the ideas in development economics for which he would later win the Nobel Prize in Economics.
Charlotte Regina Kratz
Arriving in the UK as a young Jewish refugee after fleeing Germany in 1937, Charlotte Regina Katz MBE trained in London to be a nurse. For the next decade she worked in Tanganyik (modern-day Tanzania), and returned to the UK to campaign for training for community nurses.
Kratz was the first nurse to graduate with a PhD and was a founding member of Manchester’s Department of Nursing, later becoming its Head of the Nursing Research Group.
Marilyn Strathern
Dame Marilyn Strathern DBE was Professor of Social Anthropology at the University from 1985–1993 and is one of a small number of winners of the British Academy’s Leverhulme Medal and Prize.
In 2018 she won the Balzan Prize – awarded for outstanding achievements in the fields of humanities, natural sciences and culture – for her contributions to social and cultural anthropology, and especially for her critique of Western understandings of gender and equality.
Owens College
Our foundations; Victoria University of Manchester.
With an aim to create a non-sectarian college for education, Owens College was founded in 1846 through a legacy gift from industrialist John Owens. It first opened in a house on Quay Street, Manchester in 1851, eventually expanding to a new site – now the John Owens Building, as part of our main campus – which opened in 1873.
In 1880 Owens College became the first constituent part of the federal Victoria University of Manchester – England's first civic university.
In 2004 The University of Manchester was created after the amalgamation of the Victoria University of Manchester and UMIST.
Christine Burns
A Computer Science graduate from the University, Christine Burns MBE would become an internationally-recognised political activist and health advisor.
In 1993 Burns joined transgender law experts Press for Change as its Vice-President, and spent nearly 15 years lobbying for respect and equality for transgender people in the UK. Following this she worked with the NHS to improve inclusivity and was awarded an MBE in 2005 in recognition of her fight for equality.
Hans Albrecht Bethe
German-American physicist Hans Albrecht Bethe emigrated from Germany in 1933 following Jewish persecution and took a one-year, temporary post at Manchester. The stay proved very productive: working in Lawrence Bragg’s laboratory with Rudolf Peierls, the pair created a theory of the deuteron during a train journey from Cambridge to Manchester.
Bethe won the 1967 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis.
Beatrice Shilling
War hero; pioneering engineer; champion motorcycle racer, Beatrice ‘Tilly’ Shilling OBE was one of just two female students studying for an Electrical Engineering degree at Manchester in 1929.
After graduating with a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, she began work at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, where she developed the ‘RAE restrictor’ – or ‘Miss Shilling’s orifice’ – a metal disc that was fitted into an aircraft engine’s carburettor to prevent stalling. She was later honoured with an OBE for her war effort.
James Bryce
Belfast-born James Bryce, 1st Viscount Bryce, was Professor of Jurisprudence at Owens College between 1870 and 1875.
An academic, jurist, Liberal politician and historian, his early reputation as the latter was made by his work on the Holy Roman Empire. A supporter of higher education, especially for women, Bryce joined the Central Committee of the National Union for Improving the Education of Women of All Classes in 1872. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1894.
Robert Robinson
Sir Robert Robinson was an organic chemist and Nobel laureate – recognised in 1947 for his research on plant dyestuffs and alkaloids.
He studied Chemistry at Manchester, graduating in 1905, and became Chair of Organic Chemistry at the University in the 1920s. From 1945 to 1950 he was President of the Royal Society and in 1947 received the Medal of Freedom with Silver Palm.
Henry Roscoe
Sir Henry Roscoe was appointed Professor of Chemistry at Manchester in 1857, aged 24. He would become a founder and first President of the Society of Chemical Industry, and Chair of its Manchester section.
Roscoe was elected a Member of Parliament for the Southern Division of Manchester in 1885 and served on several royal commissions appointed to consider educational questions. He received a knighthood in 1884 and was Vice-Chancellor of the University of London from 1896–1902.
Katherine Rogers
The first Deaf person who is also a British Sign Language (BSL) user to win a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) doctoral studentship and a NIHR postdoctoral studentship, Katherine (Katie) Rogers is regarded a true pioneer of what’s possible for Deaf academics.
She won the University’s Division of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work's ‘outstanding research student of the year’ award in 2014 and later the Faculty award for 'best outstanding contribution to research impact by research staff’. She would become a Senior Lecturer at the University and her doctoral work on validated mental health assessments in BSL was adopted by the NHS.
Enid Mumford
The first woman to hold a full professorship at a UK business school, Enid Mumford became Emeritus Professor at Manchester and a visiting Fellow at Manchester Business School in 1988.
Primarily known for her work on human factors and socio-technical systems, Mumford was made a Companion of the Institute of Personnel Development and a Fellow of the British Computer Society. Her work would move to broader social issues, applying socio-technical concepts to help solve complex global problems related to cyber-crime and drugs.
John Sulston
Chairman of The University of Manchester's Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation and founding Director of the Wellcome Sanger Institute, in 2002 Sir John Edward Sulston was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his contribution to the understanding of how genes control cell division and cell death in an organism.
While working at Manchester, he donated a large part of his salary to support young researchers.
Tony Brooks
Manchester alumnus Tony Brooks, also known as the ‘Racing Dentist’, was a prominent Formula One driver, securing six wins and ten podium finishes during his career before retiring early to pursue dentistry.
After Stirling Moss’s death in 2020, Brooks was the only British survivor of the 1950s Grand Prix circuit, before his own death two years later.
Joseph John Thomson
Sir Joseph John (JJ) Thomson was admitted to Owens College in 1870, at the age of just 14, and his time at Manchester would play a crucial role in shaping his scientific journey.
During his tenure he conducted the initial experiments that would lead to his cathode ray investigations, before his most momentous discovery: the existence of the electron. In 1906 he received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the conduction of electricity in gases.
Joseph E Stiglitz
American economist Joseph E Stiglitz was appointed Chair of the Brooks World Poverty Institute at The University of Manchester in 2005.
Stiglitz received the 2001 Nobel Prize in Economics for investigating monetary transactions where one party knows more than the other, and helped create ‘the economics of information’. He chaired the US Council of Economic Advisers under President Clinton and was Chief Economist at the World Bank in the 1990s, before becoming a major critic of neoliberal globalisation.
Michael Smith
After winning a scholarship to study Chemistry at The University of Manchester, Michael Smith was awarded a BSc and then, in 1956, a PhD for research into the stereochemistry of diols.
In 1993 he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Kary Mullis for his work on site-directed mutagenesis – mainly used to examine the structure and biological activity of DNA.
Martin Amis
Named by The Times as one of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945, Sir Martin Amis has been an inspiration to countless novelists.
The author of Money, London Fields and his memoir Experience, Amis would inspire a new generation of writers when he became the first Professor of Creative Writing at the University’s Centre for New Writing in 2007.
Alan Turing
Alan Turing OBE came to Manchester as a Reader in Mathematics but soon became Deputy Director of the Computing Machine Laboratory, where he worked on the Manchester Mark 1 – one of the earliest stored-program computers.
It was during this time that he proposed the Turing test, which would later earn him the nickname the ‘father of artificial intelligence’. Turing also played an integral role as a codebreaker during World War II. It’s estimated the breaking of the Enigma saved millions of lives.
Roy Chadwick
Educated at the Manchester College of Technology, later to form part of our University, Roy Chadwick CBE emerged as a pivotal figure in aviation at the beginning of the 20th century.
By 1911, at just 18 years old, he had joined A.V.Roe and Co Ltd and went on to design groundbreaking fighter planes during both World Wars, including the AVRO Lancaster Bomber.
Philip Craven
After losing the use of his legs following an accident aged 16, Philip Craven MBE went on to become a world-class basketball player and a leading voice in Paralympic sport.
Graduating from the University in 1972, Craven represented Great Britain at five Paralympic Games and won multiple gold medals at the Wheelchair Basketball European and World Championships. His work since, including becoming President of the International Paralympic Committee, has helped grow the profile of para-sport and increase participation globally.
Ellen Wilkinson
Ellen Wilkinson graduated with a BA in History from Manchester in 1913 and would, as Labour MP for Middlesbrough East, be an active spokesperson for women's interests and issues, supporting equal franchise and equal pay.
She famously walked at the head of the Jarrow March – a protest against unemployment and poverty in the town of Jarrow – and served as the first female Minister of Education, under Labour Party Prime Minister Clement Attlee, following World War II. One of her major contributions in this role included the implementation of the Education Act in 1944. The University has a building named in her honour.
Vincent Kompany
Born in Belgium to Congolese parents, Vincent Kompany made his international football debut aged just 17. In 2008 he joined Manchester City FC, becoming captain three years later and leading the team to its first top-tier league title in 44 years.
While playing for City he studied an MBA at The University of Manchester, graduating in 2018. In 2013, he established BX Brussels – a social enterprise providing young people with opportunities through football and sport.
George Unwin
Taking a scientific approach to the study of economic history, George Unwin’s influence over the development of the discipline was profound.
A native of Stockport, he held the position of the UK’s first chair of Economic History at Manchester for 15 years, until his death in 1925.
Arthur Harden
Born in Manchester, Sir Arthur Harden studied Chemistry with Henry Roscoe at Owens College from 1882, graduating in 1885.
He worked at the University as a lecturer for nine years, studying the chemical actions of light and the historical manuscripts of John Dalton, and shared the 1929 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his studies of sugar fermentation by filtered yeast extracts.
William Lawrence Bragg
Australian-born British physicist and X-ray crystallographer Sir William Lawrence Bragg OBE was named joint recipient (with his father) of the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1915, aged just 25.
Shortly after, in 1919, he was appointed Langworthy Professor of Physics at the Victoria University of Manchester. He was awarded the Military Cross for his development of sound ranging during World War I.
Manchester Mechanics' Institution
Our origins and foundations; Mechanics' Institute and UMIST.
Founded in 1824 as part of a national movement for the education of working men, we trace our roots back to the Manchester Mechanics' Institute. Expanding and evolving to premises on Portland Street, Manchester, in 1853, the Institute later became Manchester Technical School. Further growth led to the opening of a grand new building to house the School, now Sackville Street Building. In 1956 the School gained independent status and in 1966 was renamed the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST).
In 2004, The University of Manchester was created after the amalgamation of UMIST and the Victoria University of Manchester.
William Stanley Jevons
Economist and logician William Stanley Jevons was born in Liverpool and worked as a tutor at Owens College before being elected Professor of Logic and Mental and Moral Philosophy, and Cobden Professor of Political Economy.
His work The Coal Question, published in 1865, is widely regarded as the first serious analysis of energy resource depletion and efficiency. Jevons believed that logical reasoning was central to positive political and economic decision-making, and designed the world’s first mechanised computer for Boolean logic.
Frederic Williams
After studying Engineering at Manchester, Sir Frederic Williams CBE went on to be a substantial contributor to the development of radar technology during World War II at the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE).
In 1946 he became Head of Electrical Engineering at the University and it was here he helped build the first electronically stored-program digital computer, ‘The Baby’, alongside Tom Kilburn and Geoff Tootill.
Ben Elton
Actor and writer Ben Elton studied Drama at Manchester, graduating in 1980.
That same year, upon leaving the University, he became the youngest ever scriptwriter for the BBC. His most famous works include Blackadder, Saturday Night Live and The Thin Blue Line. Elton would author many novels and has written several musicals, including We Will Rock You with the band Queen. The University awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2004.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Ludwig Wittgenstein was an Austrian philosopher who studied Engineering at the University.
He was the author of two philosophical masterpieces of the 20th century – Tractatus Logico-philosophicus (1921) and Philosophical Investigations (1953) – both of which are credited as having a major impact on the course of philosophy. Wittgenstein is considered one of the greatest philosophers of the modern age and his ideas on language have markedly influenced contemporary culture.
Lemn Sissay
Separated from his birth mother and growing up in the care system, Lemn Sissay OBE self-published and sold his first poetry pamphlet when he was just 17. This was the start of a lifelong career in the creative arts as a poet and broadcaster.
Sissay was named official poet of the London Olympics in 2012. In 2015 he was elected Chancellor of The University of Manchester, and in 2021 received an OBE for services to literature and charity.
George de Hevesy
From Hungary, George de Hevesy worked with Ernest Rutherford at Manchester between 1911 and 1913, where he learned practical radiochemistry and became a lifelong friend of Niels Bohr.
He invented the use of radioactive isotopes as ‘tracers’ – a way of following the movements or transformations of an otherwise identical substance with which a tracer mixes – and was awarded the 1943 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for pioneering the use of isotopes in the study of chemical processes.
Tom Kilburn
While working at The University of Manchester in 1948, Tom Kilburn CBE was part of the trio to design and run ‘The Baby’, the world’s first stored-program computer.
He went on to lead the development of a number of Manchester computers, including the Ferranti Mark 1 with Alan Turing. He was awarded numerous accolades, including a CBE in 1973, and the University’s home of computer science, the Kilburn Building, was named in his honour.
Sally Davies
Professor Dame Sally Davies DBE graduated in 1972 after studying Medicine at the University’s Medical School.
She was the Chief Medical Officer for England – the first woman to hold the post – from 2010 to 2019 and Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department of Health from 2004 to 2016. Professor Davies developed the National Institute for Health Research in 2006 with a budget of £1 billion and was awarded a DBE in 2009 for outstanding services to medicine.
Our staff
You are our brain, our heart and our strength, and we salute you!
All that we are today is because of you, our wonderful staff, with your brilliant skills and ideas, which keep the cogs forever turning in this beautifully complex machine. Your dedication to our teaching, research and operations makes us who we are. You make a difference.
Jesse Armstrong
Jesse Armstrong studied American Studies at the University in the 1990s and would become the creator and director of globally successful show Succession.
He also created cult classics Peep Show and Fresh Meat. His programmes have won numerous awards globally, including BAFTA TV and Primetime Emmy Awards.
Ernest Rutherford
From New Zealand, Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson, received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1908 while Langworthy Professor of Physics at Manchester.
A household name in science, ‘the father of nuclear physics’ carried out the gold-foil experiment at the University and created a world centre for experiments in atomic physics. Today, his name appears in chemistry high school textbooks in the UK and around the world.
Violet Cane
Like Alan Turing, Violet Cane helped the World War II effort as part of the codebreaking team at Bletchley Park, and she would later contact him about the theoretical possibility of constructing a mechanical brain.
Cane herself came to Manchester to join the University in 1971, where she was both the first woman appointed as Professor of Mathematical Statistics, and a Professor in the Faculty of Science.
Ron Hill
Ron Hill MBE was a long-distance runner who graduated from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) in 1960 and would stay on to complete a Textile Chemistry PhD.
His many achievements include winning gold in the marathon at the 1969 European Championships and the 1970 Commonwealth Games. He ran 115 marathons in his career – breaking four world records along the way – and founded the successful sportswear company Ronhill.
Enriqueta Rylands
Born in Cuba, Enriqueta Rylands was educated in New York, London and Paris before marrying entrepreneur John Rylands in 1875. Upon her husband’s death in 1888, Enriqueta used her substantial inheritance to found and stock the John Rylands Library to give back to the people of Manchester.
She was later given the Freedom of the City of Manchester – the first woman to receive the honour – and was awarded an honorary degree, Doctor of Literature, from Victoria University in February 1902.
Christabel Pankhurst
Dame Christabel Pankhurst DBE was brought up in Manchester and was awarded a first-class Law degree from the University in 1906. She co-founded the Women’s Social and Political Union and played a leading role in the suffragette movement.
The University’s Christabel Pankhurst Institute is named to celebrate the connection between the University and Pankhurst, a driving force behind one of the most significant social reforms of the 20th century.
Nevill Francis Mott
Born in Leeds, Sir Nevill Francis Mott was a trailblazer in nuclear and collision theory, investigating the properties of metals and semiconductors, and developing a theory of transition metals.
While a Lecturer at Manchester he wrote a book on wave mechanics. At the age of 60 he began the work for which he shared the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physics with Philip Anderson and John H van Vleck: fundamental theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of magnetic and disordered systems.
George Simpson
At Manchester, Sir George Simpson CBE became the first person to lecture in Meteorology at a British university, having graduated from Owens College in 1900.
In 1910 he and his colleague Charles Wright were the meteorologists for Robert Falcon Scott's Antarctic Terra Nova Expedition. In 1920 he was appointed Director of the Meteorological Office, London, going on to be its longest serving Director, where he conducted work in the fields of atmospheric electricity, ionisation, radioactivity and solar radiation.
You
You are amazing and you deserve to be here!
Greatness comes in many guises. Take a moment to reflect and celebrate every mountain you have climbed – both big and small.
Whatever point you may be at in your life, studies or career, know that you can always achieve what you believe in. You can make a difference.